The Systems Policy Institute

Policy for a world of interconnected challenges.

The Systems Policy Institute is an independent policy research organization working to understand how institutions, technologies, and public policy interact — and how they can work better for people and societies.

Explore our work About SPI

Ideas across systems. Policy for a changing world.

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Our perspective

Today's challenges do not exist in isolation. Neither should our responses.

Our aim is not simply to study individual policies, but to understand the systems that shape their possibilities, consequences, and capacity for change.

From technological change and human mobility to the institutions that govern science, development, and international cooperation, public challenges increasingly cut across sectors, borders, and traditional policy boundaries.

The Systems Policy Institute brings a systems perspective to these challenges. We conduct research, develop policy ideas, convene people across disciplines and institutions, and build initiatives that connect evidence with action.

Based in the Washington, DC region and globally engaged, SPI works across geographies while bringing particular attention to Africa and to the relationships between African societies and the wider international system.

Our work

Working across systems, not within silos.

Science, Technology & Society

We examine how science, emerging technologies and research systems interact with institutions and society, with a focus on governance, innovation and the public value of knowledge.

Mobility & Migration

We study the policies and institutions governing human mobility—from visas and borders to labour, education and talent mobility—and their consequences for opportunity and inequality.

Trade, Development & Regional Integration

We examine how trade, economic policy and regional cooperation can support development, economic transformation and greater connectivity within and between regions.

Peace, Security & Governance

We explore the institutional and policy dimensions of conflict, peace, security and governance, including how societies build resilience and respond to complex and transnational challenges.

Africa & Global Affairs

We examine Africa's changing place in the international system, including its relationships with global powers, multilateral institutions and evolving structures of international cooperation.

Leadership & Public Purpose

We explore how leadership, institutions and networks can strengthen public problem-solving, while developing opportunities for emerging leaders to engage with consequential policy challenges.

Explore our work

Featured initiatives

From ideas to public-interest infrastructure.

U.S.–Africa Policy Hub

Building a stronger space for U.S.–Africa policy ideas.

The relationship between the United States and Africa is being reshaped by changes in trade, technology, security, migration, demographics and global power. Yet policy conversations on both sides of the Atlantic too often remain fragmented across sectors, institutions and geographies.

The U.S.–Africa Policy Hub is an SPI initiative creating a platform for research, analysis and dialogue on the policies shaping relations between African countries and the United States.

Explore the U.S.–Africa Policy Hub

VisaWatch

Making the global mobility system visible.

Who gets to move across borders—and under what conditions—is shaped by a complex system of visa rules, fees, exemptions, refusals and administrative practices. These policies affect millions of people, yet the systems governing access to international mobility remain difficult to compare and understand.

VisaWatch is an independent public-interest research and data initiative of SPI that examines how visa and mobility systems operate across countries and over time.

Explore VisaWatch

What we do

Turning systems thinking into policy action.

Research

We conduct independent, policy-relevant research that examines how institutions, policies and systems work, who they affect, and how they can be improved.

Build

We develop public-interest platforms, data resources and policy initiatives that make complex systems easier to understand and create new infrastructure for research, policy and public engagement.

Convene

We bring together researchers, policymakers, practitioners and communities across sectors and geographies to exchange knowledge, challenge assumptions and develop new approaches to shared problems.

Develop

We create opportunities for emerging and established leaders to strengthen their capacity, networks and ability to address complex public challenges.

Learn more about our approach

A global perspective

Policy looks different depending on where you stand.

Many of the institutions and rules that shape global policy are negotiated in a small number of centers of power, while their consequences are experienced across vastly different political, economic and social contexts.

Based in the Washington, DC region and globally engaged, we connect policy conversations in the United States with perspectives, evidence and expertise from Africa and other parts of the world. We are particularly interested in questions that cross borders: how global rules are made, how institutions interact across levels of governance, and how policies affect countries and communities differently.

Our approach treats Africa not simply as a site where global policies are implemented, but as a source of knowledge, policy innovation and ideas that can shape wider debates.

Learn more about SPI

People

Ideas are stronger when different perspectives meet.

Moses O. Ogutu

Founder & Executive Director

Clifford Collins Okwany

Senior Fellow & Program Lead, Peace, Security & Governance

Jack Omondi

Fellow, Climate, Sustainability & Science Policy

Meet our people

Engage with SPI

Better policy requires more than one kind of expertise.

Work with us Contact SPI

SPI works with researchers, policymakers, practitioners, institutions and supporters who share an interest in understanding complex public challenges and developing better responses to them.

Whether you want to collaborate on research, contribute to an initiative, convene a policy conversation, support our work or bring a perspective we should be hearing, we would like to hear from you.